Thursday, January 9, 2014

Dyman review, Paralympic judo dream for young Blackburn fighter

A YOUNG judo fighter who dreams
of competing in the Paralympics has been hailed an ‘inspiration’ by a leading
blind charity.

Caitlin Leigh, who
has glaucoma and is registered blind, competes against fully-sighted youngsters
and recently scored her first victory.

The 10-year-old, of Leopold Way,
Blackburn, took up the sport five years ago after struggling to take part in
ball-based sports and her mum is delighted by the huge confidence boost it has
given her.

Claire, 32, said: “In judo you are
grabbing hold of people pretty much the whole time so it’s much better suited
for her.

“She’s absolutely loved it and
was over the moon when she won her first fight. We’d been to about five
tournaments and she had tears in her eyes and ran over to her dad and gave him
a big hug.

“The great thing about it is
she’s not treated any differently and she’s made some great friends.

“We took her to see the judo at
the Paralympics in London last year and that just fuelled it even more. It’s
her ultimate goal to compete at the games one day.”

Caitlin, a pupil at St James
Primary School in Lower Darwen, has no vision in her left eye, and her right
eye is extremely short sighted. She reads braille and uses a cane to walk.

She first tried the sport at a
taster session run by the Action for Blind People Actionnaires Club in
Blackburn and enjoyed it so much she joined Beach Judo Club in Westbury Gardens
as well as Shadsworth Judo Club. She
trains twice a week and now competes regularly, recently achieving her orange
belt.

The order of grades generally
sees fighters progress from orange to green, blue and brown before black.

Janet Beale, a support
coordinator at Action for Blind People, said: “Caitlin is an absolute
inspiration to other youngsters with sight problems.

“She’s been a regular at our
sessions and doesn’t seem to let anything get in her way. We gave her the
confidence to try something different and that’s what it’s all about. Blindness
shouldn’t be a barrier to taking part in sport.”